COLIN Todd pointed the finger at his strikers today and insisted: "It's time to produce."

The Wanderers' boss, critical of defensive lapses in recent games, is equally concerned that his four forwards are failing to deliver the goods.

Dean Holdsworth has scored twice from the penalty spot but Eidur Gudjohnsen's early strike in the 2-1 victory over QPR - their one win in six attempts - is the only goal his strikers have produced from open play in the league.

"That's just not good enough," the manager told the quartet of Holdsworth, Gudjohnsen, Bo Hansen and Bob Taylor on a de-briefing at Euxton today.

"We've created chances at Tranmere and Ipswich, against Manchester City and Birmingham and we've failed to put them away.

Stretched

"It's about time the four of them got their act together."

The quartet's strike rate is just one of a list of traumas tormenting Todd in the wake of the latest setback that left Wanderers just a point off the bottom of Division One.

Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Charlton also brought disciplinary problems that will see his defensive resources stretched in the coming weeks, an admission by the manager that a selection switch 'rebounded' and talk of 'psychological' wounds needing attention.

Andy Todd, sent off along with Charlton's Graham Stuart after a punch up in first half overtime, will miss the home game against Nottingham Forest plus the trips to Swindon and Wolves while Mike Whitlow, red carded for two bookable offences, will miss the Forest game unless referee Paul Robinson looks at the match video and takes a different view of the 71st minute incident that led to his second yellow card.

Strong, dropped to make way for Gudni Bergsson after the Birmingham game, will come back into the reckoning for tomorrow's Worthington Cup tie at Second Division Gillingham, who go into the game buoyed by a 2-1 win at Oxford on Saturday.

Combat

"We've shown frailties at the back, not being able to prevent the opposition scoring," the manager explained, "so I made a personnel change to try and combat that. But it hasn't worked.

"The players are giving everything but it's just not happening for them and it's my job to try to help them But I need help myself. I've been saying all along that the squad would be vulnerable if we had injuries or suspensions and now we're going to lose two players when we need everyone available.

"I always said it was going to be hard this season and we know now that it's going to be an uphill battle. At this stage I'm not just assessing the physical injuries, I've also got to be aware of the psychological damage too.

"But we'll go to Gillingham, look to get something out of that game and build on that against Barnsley on Saturday."

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